How and Why Does a Scandal Influence Media Heterogeneity? Calciopoli and the Italian Newspapers

Abstract

This paper contributes to the nascent organizational literature on scandals by analyzing the durable consequences of a scandal within a field. Specifically, we explore how media heterogeneity changes after a scandal. Understanding such a change is crucial because it affects how the entire field recovers from the disruption of a scandal, how the specific wrongdoers restore their public image, and the credibility of the same media outlets. Extant research suggests multiple and contrasting social processes at play after a scandal that can influence media heterogeneity. We study how the Calciopoli scandal, which affected the Italian football league in 2006, impacted the heterogeneity in reporting referees’ decisions among the three Italian national sports newspapers. We find that media heterogeneity increases after a scandal only for the teams involved in it. One key mechanism is the intensification in newspapers’ partisanship toward their local teams. Interestingly, we found that, despite this growth in partisanship, newspapers are largely able to not compromise the credibility of their reporting. In fact, when commenting on the same episodes, we find a low level of media heterogeneity. Therefore, partisanship arises mainly from reporting episodes omitted by other newspapers and not by holding different opinions on the same episodes.